As Mike Babcock continues what many are calling his 'redemption tour', seemimgly attempting to paint himself in a better light after several accusations against him by former players, another one is speaking out on his time playing under Babcock. Tony Martensson played for the Anaheim Ducks while Babcock was the bench boss there. He didn't see a lot of NHL action (just six games in total), but did take part in two training camps with Babcock as the leader and doesn't paint a very pleasant picture.
"There was zero respect," Martensson told Expressen.se in his home country of Sweden. "That was the jargon at the time, and I was a young guy who wasn't the best at speaking English. Of course it was tough. He could have broken me down, but he did not succeed."
Martensson feels he was a target of Babcock because of his nationality.
"It was about that I was from Sweden, that I was too small, that I was too weak. He told me several times: 'You're way too small to play in the show,'" said Martensson. I'm [six feet], so I knew I wasn't too small. He also probably just thought I was too bad of a player, and he was not afraid to tell me and lots of other players just that. That was just his personality. It was his first or second year in the NHL, and from what I've seen after that it only got worse and worse."
Martensson also told a story where Babcock forced him to change in the shower.
"One time during warm-up before a game against Colorado, and at that time one warm-up player did not get to play in the game, he pointed at me and said: 'You're not playing'. So I start to change, but then he asks: 'What the hell are you doing?'. I just replied that he told me I wasn't playing. Then I had to go and change in the shower instead. This was the kind of things he was doing," said Martensson.
"I felt awful, like I didn't matter as a player or as a person. And that wasn't even too bad, because by then I'd already been there for a while and knew what he was like."
Martensson added that he felt Babcock was a very good coach who was great at pumping up his team, but as a person, Martensson felt he was lacking.
"I must say though that Babcock's speeches before the matches were absolutely fantastic. He could make the team glow in his eyes. We had great practices and he was always well prepared. He wasn't a bad coach, but he was a bad person," he said.
Since Babcock was fired as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs over a year ago, several former players have spoken out about his treatment of them and their teammates. Babcock was allegedly manipulative and borderline abusive. He was recently named head coach of the University of Saskatchewan men's hockey team, which seems to be his attempt to claw his way back to the NHL after having his reputation tarnished.
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